The hit series The Bear sits at the uncommon crossroads of pop culture and culinary excellence in Chicago, so what better guide to have when eating around The Windy City?

Currently on its third season, Christopher Storer’s popular FX series about a celebrated fine-dining chef, Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), returning home after his brother’s untimely death to help a frazzled team climb the food chain, has made for utterly compelling TV.

Not only has The Bear become compulsory viewing for the food industry and those of us who admire it from the outside, but it has lifted the proverbial lid on systemic toxicity in restaurant culture and has helped further the careers of Allen White alongside fellow cast members Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Most of all, it’s made everyone want to visit Chicago. While Berzatto’s first task was to helm his late brother’s fictional Italian sandwich shop, Mr. Beef, the chef and his crew have since taken flight through Chicago’s storied, chaotic, cutthroat food scene. Many of the restaurants, diners, cafes and bakeries featured in the show are not only very real, but they offer that superior quality that constantly postures Chicago as one of the world’s greatest food cities.

On a recent visit to The Windy City, I visited many of the locations featured in The Bear, as well as a few that haven’t made an appearance (yet). As it turns out, The Bear is just as reliable when it comes to food as Netflix’s legendary Chef’s Table or Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Here’s where I went, what I ate, and which dishes I can’t stop thinking about.

Please note: all prices have been converted into AUD and were accurate as of 9 September 2024.

1. Gene and Jude’s, River Grove

Best for: A classic Chicago hotdog.

Mentioned in The Bear’s first season, Gene and Jude’s is one of those Chicago institutions that’s just as much about the history as it is about the food. Since 1946, this spot has been slinging award-winning Chicago-style hot dogs, stripping any trace of frills and keeping things nice, simple and affordable.

You’ll need to head out to River Grove to try some of this hard-won consistency. However, it is quite close to the airport so a good tip would be to have one on the way to, or from, O’Hare.

Price: $
Address: 2720 N River Rd, River Grove

2. Ummo, River North

Best for: Inventive Italian food and surprising desserts.

Ummo hasn’t been immortalised in The Bear yet, but one of the newest restaurants in the big-hearted River North district easily has what it takes to navigate Chicago’s alarmingly high standards.

Chef José Sosa has put together an imaginative menu that favours coastal and regional Italian, pulling bold flavours from top-shelf produce for dishes like the exceptional Carpaccio di Polpo with thinly sliced octopus presented beautifully alongside roasted tomatoes, pickled onions, lemon oil, baby arugula and a touch of tangy Calabrian tonnato aioli.

Sosa excels at playing with simple, fresh flavours. Grab the burrata served with avocado, house-baked bread and an optional splash of Petrosian caviar. The house-made pastas are similarly stripped back and immensely satisfying. But Sosa’s longest stroke of genius is a high-concept, Blumenthal-esque dessert that has (successfully) turned a classic Caprese salad into a sweet treat.

Don’t believe me? The delicious dolci is served as a bright red tomato, drizzled with olive oil and served with an incredible basil sorbet on the side. Inside the “tomato" is a jammy tomato, raspberry and vanilla compote, while specks of yoghurt mousse substitute for the mozzarella.

Price: $$$
Address: 22 W Hubbard St, Chicago

3. Billy Goat Tavern, Magnificent Mile

Best for: Late-night cheeseburgers and a classic tavern vibe.

There’s something undeniably romantic about a legendary neon-washed tavern sitting pretty under Chicago’s swanky Magnificent Mile. The original (there are now a few locations) Billy Goat Tavern looks like a time capsule from the moment you walk in, with walls covered in memorabilia dating back to when doors first opened in 1934.

Office workers pile in for a simple diner-style breakfast, but anyone looking for some economic refuge can be found loading up on $9 “cheezborgers" that come coated in more value than anything you’ll find at In-N-Out. They’re so famous in Chicago, that Billy Goat Tavern inspired a classic Saturday Night Live skit in 1978.

The simple, smash-style burger is a masterclass in simplicity and while it mightn’t be too filling, the fact that something this tasty costs less than $10 reiterates Chicago’s range.

Price: $
Address: Lower 430 North, Michigan Ave, Chicago

4. Virtue, Hyde Park

Best for: Elevated soul food with incredible flavours.

Best mac and cheese I’ve ever had? Check. Best cornbread I’ve ever had? Check. Virtue is a relatively new soul food restaurant from chef Erick Williams, who manages to pull a tremendous amount of flavour out of classic Southern American staples.

I was enamoured with everything I tried, from biscuits with pimento cheese and honey, and fried green tomatoes with gulf shrimp, to incredible blackened catfish with BBQed carrots on Carolina gold rice. The aforementioned cornbread with honey butter was so good that I’d return just for that.

Again, this restaurant hasn’t been featured in The Bear but it has become such a definitive dining experience for the city that I had to include it on this list of Chicago’s best restaurants. Plus, Hyde Park is a beautiful neighbourhood (just stick to crowded areas and don’t go walking around by yourself at night).

Price: $$$
Address: 1462 E 53rd St, Chicago

5. Lao Peng You, West Town

Best for: Exceptional hand-rolled dumplings.

In Season 2, Episode 3 (“Sundae") of The Bear, Edebiri’s Sydney Adamu heads out on a self-fashioned Chicago food tour to glean inspiration for her and Carmy’s new restaurant. Kasama was one of the first stops on this gastronomic research trip, but the most eye-catching was Lao Peng You with its famous hand-rolled dumplings served in hot and sour broth.

This West Town favourite is famed for these crescent moon-shaped purses generously stuffed with fillings like beef and green onion, pork and dill, and mushroom and chive. One serving will net you ten incredibly rich dumplings, soaked with flavour from a thick broth made with aged dark soy, vinegar, ruby-red chilli oil and various aromatics like coriander, zha cai and garlic.

If you’ve got a big appetite, tack on some of that thick, delicious lamb cumin bread and use the spongy gift to mop up the remaining soup. Or try some zesty beef needle soup. You waited this long for a table so you might as well make the most of it.

Price: $$
Address: 2020 W Chicago Ave, Chicago

6. Ever, West Loop

Best for: Inventive fine dining and premium wines.

On the other side of the financial spectrum is Ever Restaurant, the stand-in for a fictional fine diner in Season 2, Episode 7 (“Forks"). As one of several prominent fine dining experiences in Chicago, a booking here is hard to score but very rewarding, with chef Curtis Duffy at his creative best.

Duffy, who pioneered fine dining in Chicago with the now-closed Grace, has a reputation for being one of the most experimental chefs in the country. On Ever’s constantly evolving set menu, his team enjoy subverting expectations. Like serving asparagus in three ways or dishing up a rich and silky English pea soup with black garlic and grains.

Highlights on my visit included a ring-like leek covered in capers, coated in lemon balm, and elevated by a generous spread of Oscietra Grand Reserve Caviar, a brilliant banana dessert hiding under a multicoloured disc of hibiscus, passionfruit and hoja santa, and a chocolate sphere with jasmine, strawberry and mint.

You wouldn’t be doing it right if you didn’t get the very well-conceived wine pairing, but for the non-alcs amongst us, Ever also offers a booze-free pairing option.

Price: $$$$
Address: 1340 W Fulton St, Chicago

7. Mindy’s Bakery, Bucktown

Best for: Indulgent baked goods and the world’s best hot chocolate.

One of Chicago’s most reliable bakers, Mindy Segal, has built an enviable reputation in Chicago’s trendy Bucktown neighbourhood. First, she ran the excellent HotChocolate. I first went there in 2019 and had, unsurprisingly, a hot chocolate that swiftly upped my idea of how a warm cup of cocoa should taste.

I was disappointed to hear HotChocolate was no more, but Segal isn’t done with the trendy neighbourhood. She closed HotChocolate, moved a few blocks up, and now runs the popular Mindy’s Bakery.

Yes, you can still get mindblowing hot chocolate (or iced chocolate in the summer months), best taken with a rich, flaky savoury pasty. As long as the queues can be, the hype is more than justified.

One tip I have is to have lunch at Lao Peng You in West Town and stroll up N. Hoyne Avenue to Wicker Park-Bucktown, before ending at Mindy’s for dessert. The heritage-listed N. Hoyne has some of Chicago’s most beautiful heritage homes, making it one of the most picturesque streets in the USA.

Price: $
Address: 1623 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago

8. Mr. Beef, River North

Best for: The iconic Italian beef sandwich.

You thought deep dish was a contentious topic for Chicagoans? Ask anyone where to get the best classic Italian beef sandwich and you’ll get several very passionate answers. Portillo’s? Al’s Beef? Johnnie’s Beef? Kindling? Every local is loyal to at least one Italian beef joint.

The truth is, it’s nearly impossible to mess up an Italian beef. The recipe, created by Italian American immigrants in the 1930s, is very specific: thin slices of roast beef are cooked in beef stock and various seasonings and served on French bread, usually with bell peppers. The sandwich is either served dipped in its own juices, served dry, or served with juice on the side.

It’s cheap, delicious, but fairly unhealthy. Italian beefs are also very easy to find in Chicago and my favourites have been at Al’s Beef in Kindling (which takes a more farm-to-fork approach for a premium version) and Mr. Beef in River North – where The Bear found inspiration for Carmy’s first challenge.

Price: $
Address: 666 N Orleans St, Chicago

9. Girl & The Goat, West Loop

Best for: High-stakes culinary action.

If you’re wondering where all the behind-the-scenes action is – the oversized kitchen team squeezing into a small, narrow open kitchen and shouting jokes at each other, swirling all kinds of magical juices around as they plate up pure magic and wave piping bags around like they were loaded pistols – you need to head to Stephanie Izard’s career-defining Girl & The Goat and grab one of two stools peering into the intimate open kitchen. It’s like watching that epic one-shot scene from the Season 1 finale of The Bear (sans verbal abuse).

This busy West Loop restaurant is one of Chicago’s signature dining experiences, buoyed by a furiously creative menu that pays equal attention to all food groups, but has a particular love of serving up goat in unexpected ways.

Grab some of those goat empanadas with corn mule to start and complement that with some goat liver mousse, all rich and fatty with fluffy crumpets and a beautiful strawberry mostarda.

On paper, the chickpea fritters might look bland, but they are an easy highlight, as is the full-flavoured ora king salmon poke and indulgent roasted pig face served with a sunny side egg, tamarind, cilantro, red-wine maple and potato stix.

Price: $$$
Address: 809 W Randolph St, Chicago

10. Tortello, Wicker Park

Best for: Rich, homemade Italian food.

Tortello only pops in briefly for Season 3 of The Bear but it’s one of the best restaurants featured on the show. Walk down the main strip of Wicker Park and you’ll spy this modern shopfront with its massive glass window, behind which staff studiously roll, stretch and fill generously large pasta of all shapes and sizes.

Grab a seat and order from a tight list of pasta, including the namesake: four massive pieces of Tortelli filled with burrata and topped with sage. Chicago is known for having some of the most creative hospitality concepts in the country. Tortello doesn’t fit that brief; instead reiterating that simple is almost always best, as long as you know what you’re doing.

Price: $$$
Address: 1746 W Division St, Chicago

11. Loaf Lounge, Avondale

Best for: Famous layered chocolate cake and simple pastries.

Loaf Lounge played a big role in Season 1 of The Bear via its indulgent, densely layered chocolate cake. Chef and baker Sarah Mispagel, who runs the pop-up-turned-restaurant with her husband Ben Lustbader, served as pastry consultant for the show and supplied the crew with her now-famous chocolate cake.

While the cute neighbourhood cafe and bakery is just as popular for breakfast sandwiches and pastries, it’s that mouth-watering chocolate cake that often spells lines around the bloke. Mispagel uses three layers of chocolate stacked with dark chocolate mousse, rich and velvety with a mix of Valrhona Manjari 64 per cent, Tainori single origin and chocolate American buttercream icing.

Price: $
Address: 2934 N Milwaukee Ave Suite E, Chicago

12. Au Cheval, West Loop

Best for: Fine dining burgers and inventive egg dishes.

Au Cheval wasn’t featured in The Bear, but the egg-obsessed diner is inseparable from lively debates about Chicago’s food scene. Specifically, those would be discussions on where to find Chicago’s best burger, with this reliable kitchen making a strong case for carb-laden supremacy.

Personally, it’s the single best burger I’ve ever had, anywhere (yes, I’ve been to Tokyo). And when I’m told that people can wait up to four hours just to get their hands around the signature, I’m hardly surprised. On paper, the $28 Au Cheval burger is arrestingly simple, served open-faced with two smashed patties, each with melted cheese, supported by a seasoned fried egg, thick-cut bacon and elusive ‘burger sauce’.

All that comes together on the palate in the most divine way, grounded with big, meaty, satisfying textures and the perfect balance between sweet and savoury.

If the potential wait time puts you off, note that Au Cheval also has a smaller burger-only off-shoot called Small Cheval. These burgers are similar in style, although I’ve always found them slightly less satisfying. Yet there’s next to no wait time and you’ll find locations in Fulton Market, Old Town, Wicker Park, Hyde Park and Wrigleyville.

Price: $$
Address: 800 W Randolph St, Chicago

13. Mott Street, Wicker Park

Best for: Asian-inspired American diner classics and a delicious signature burger.

While Au Cheval is the first answer when asking after Chicago’s best burger, Mott Street isn’t far behind. Although this excellent Wicker Park restaurant is much more than just its gloriously stacked signature burger, that monstrous sandwich is worth its weight in gold.

The kitchen stops serving the burger at 7pm, although they don’t advertise that you can still order it at the bar. I’m told the chef was frustrated that everyone was ordering the burger but didn’t have room for anything else on the menu, hence the innocuous lie.

The Mott St burger is a $31 giant of double chuck patties with hoisin aioli, pickled jalapeno, dill pickles, miso butter onions, American cheese and a generous heaping of sweet potato shoestring fries to add a bit of height.

Grab that if you’ve only got room for one thing, but you’ll also want to sample signatures like the wok-tossed pasta with Gulf shrimp and garlic butter, the miso and maple-marinated black cod, and the delicious braised short rib served on oyster congee with a five-spice blend.

Price: $$
Address: 1401 N Ashland Ave, Chicago

14. Kasama, Ukrainian Village

Best for: Unique Filipino French pastries and the city’s best breakfast sandwich.

Located along W Augusta Boulevard on the edge of Ukranian Village, Kasama is the world’s first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant. By night, this super popular spot is one of Chicago’s most bankable fine-dining restaurants, with a $427 per person multi-course menu.

During the day, however, Kasama is a Filipino-French bakery with queues that stretch for blocks. The wait, often up to two hours, is worth it for the kitchen’s signature $22 Longanisa sausage breakfast sandwich.

Stacked neatly between a fluffy potato roll you’ve got a house-made longanisa – a Filpino-style sausage similar to chorizo – adding a nice tang to a supporting cast of melted cheese, puffy egg souffle for creaminess, and an optional-but-necessary hash brown.

If you’ve waited that long, try to save some more stomach space for those exceptional pastries. I tried a sweet and savoury Danish filled with cream cheese and topped with top-quality prosciutto that was just as good as the breakfast sandwich.

Want a tip? Order online and skip the queue when you pick up or show up around 1pm when the lunch rush is dying down. And on your second visit, you’ll probably want to try the kitchen’s version of a classic Chicago-style Italian beef, replacing shreds of roast beef with fatty longanisa, pork adobo and giardiniera.

Price: $$
Address: 1001 N Winchester Ave, Chicago

15. Michael Jordan’s Steak House, Magnificent Mile

Best for: A swanky classic steakhouse in a historic hotel.

I adore the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile and have very fond memories of my time there. Like some other properties around the city – like the incredible Palmer House – it is overflowing with historical details, set amongst some of the most beautiful buildings in the world on the Magnificent Mile.

From memory, breakfast isn’t anything to write home about, but the hotel benefits from hosting Michael Jordan’s Steak House. It’s a classic steakhouse, was mentioned on The Bear, and fits the brief when you want a lively but classy atmosphere, top-shelf wine and perfectly cooked steaks.

Price: $$$$
Address: 505 N Michigan Ave, Chicago